§13. Stanza Forms. XXXII. Non-English Writings II. Vol. 18. Later National Literature, Part III. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVIII. Later National Literature, Part III.

XXXII. Non-English Writings II.

§ 13. Stanza Forms.

As tribal culture advances, the stanza form makes its appearance, assonance, measure, and in descriptive passages an instinctive attempt to make the rhythms suggestive if not actually imitative.

Two or three distinct stanza forms with refrain can be found in the songs of the house-dwelling tribes of the South-west. Garcilasso de la Vega says that the Incas were proficient in the quatrain in which the first line rhymed with the last and the second with the third. Among our own tribes a very competent blank verse had developed, capable of carrying long narrative and susceptible of variation to meet the demands of dialogue.